Chicago Bears: 5 Bold predictions for Week 1 vs. Lions
4. Graham has a great beginning to his time in Chicago
Many felt that signing an aging Graham was a big mistake for the Chicago Bears. There were plenty of younger options they could have targeted. The Bears feel, however, that Graham still has something in the tank.
Graham isn’t just on the team for his play on the field. The Bears also have him mentoring Kmet. Kmet is the star of the future, but he still is pretty raw. When he was in Notre Dame, he split some of his time on the baseball team as well as the football team. He ultimately decided on football, but he still is learning the position, especially the position on the professional level.
There is no better professional than Graham. He is a former All-Pro so he’s had his successes. He’s also had some down times, so he can share those times with the youngster. The work is already visible as Kmet had a great training camp.
Don’t get it wrong, though. Graham is also expected to perform on the field. While he’s a great mentor for Kmet, Graham also needs to lead by example. The tight ends unit was horrible last season and since head coach Matt Nagy’s offense depends on tight ends contributions, this unit needs to improve.
Graham will show that improvement right away. The Green Bay Packers don’t utilize the tight end as much as the Bears system does. In 2018, he had 89 targets, his lowest total since he had 74 targets when he was with the Seahawks. That was the same year he missed the last five games due to a knee injury (he hasn’t missed a game since then, however). In 2019, the targets dropped to 60.
That frustrated Graham. You could see that he wasn’t happy in Green Bay (but really, is anyone happy living in Green Bay?). He didn’t act in any way detrimental to the team but you could see he didn’t have the enthusiasm you usually saw in him.
That changed when he got to Chicago. He was active during training camp and was engaging with the media.
Additionally, Graham is motivated to show he still has something left. He practices well during camp and wants to prove the doubters wrong. Knowing that he’ll have more targets, he’ll have that chance.
Prediction: Graham finishes with 8 targets, 6 catches for 68 yards, and 2 touchdowns.